( Continued from Big Tree Loves Little Bush )

Her head hurt so badly. Not again, oh god, not again. Her brow puckered as her head moved, and her cheek hit the warm flesh of her rescuer, Jupiter, who held her while she slept the drugs off. He had carried her from NYC to the Sanctuary, set her up in a cozy quarter, hell, even gone out of his way to find her a keyboard, and was now worriedly cradling her fragile form against the solid wall of his brightly colored chest.

She fought to open her eyes, working her metallic tasting mouth so saliva would ease the dryness the drug had caused her. It took her maybe a minute, but she cracked her hues open a little bit, only to see blur. Sighing, she tried to sit up, but her arms and legs felt leaden, the drugs were not yet completely out of her system. Another minute passed by and she was able to roll over until she was sprawled on Jupiter, peering drowsily at his handsome face.

When she tried to speak, Xavia couldn’t quite form any words and ended up mumbling nonsensical rubbish that basically had no meaning. Her hands curled up into half fists against her almost lover’s shoulders, and she had no choice but to drop her head and whimper as the pain sliced through her temples.

Her eyes closed again and she lay helplessly against Jupiter, and confused and freaking out in her mind, feeling a burning pain from the knot in her thigh where the needle had been jabbed. What… What the hell had happened?

She suddenly remembered the thugs returning to her borrowed home, the fighting, the hand that covered her mouth, and started to cry between the drugs and the stress. Her tears weren’t forced(though those were genuine enough) like last time, but this time they came out whether she wanted to cry or not. The saline fell passed her eyelids and dripped onto the massive red chest that was her pillow, and she couldn’t stop them from coming because her brain was in a cloud that she couldn’t quite get out of.

Xavia was tired, she was sore, and her soul was weary. But for the first time since her kidnapping, someone was holding onto her to comfort, rather than hurt.

He spoke to her as her eyes fluttered the first time drawing her up as she moved her limbs. "Don't worry, sweet heart. I got ya. Safe as promised."

He then started to hum the tune that she had played earlier as best he could. He meant it to comfort her but her tears just kept flowing. He would interrupt the tune every so often to encourage her to comfort her with words. A "you can do it hear." and a " its ok love, there."


as she started to cry he did his best to reassure her. " I took you by the infirmary, I hope that was ok, they said you'd be fine. that punk gave you a sedative. I didn't catch him, I didn't dare leave you alone to chase anyone else. if you can tell me who he is, I'll finish the job though." permanently, he would hurt the man and any one that was with in a 40ft radius of him. and then deliver on the promise of feeding him his extremities.

Jupiter rocked her back and forth attempting to help her sleep off the drugs, it did no good to struggle against them while they still had a hold on her.

He had gotten her a key board for now...but a maple wood upright piano was on the way. He was happy he came across her...who knows what would have happend to her, if they hadn't of met up and she was on her own that night...then again she wouldn't have wasted her energy on him.

He was speaking to her but she could only understand a few snatches of his words before she gave in to the comforting embrace he gave in to the feeling. She cried for sometime, her body shuddering with silent sobbing, and it went on for at least an hour until there were no more tears. Her head was throbbing by the time she was done, but her heart felt less burdened than it had in a long time. And he never told her to stop, or if he did, she didn’t hear him.

Eventually, she drifted off into sleep as the drugs forced her to do, and he would be able to feel she was slightly feverish, but not dangerously so, as she lay in the circle of his arms. The scent of flora seemed more powerful as the night progressed, filling the room with the thick smell of flowers and the loamy smell of a forest. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell at all, but harder to pinpoint outside where it was a natural smell.

Xavia lay still, not changing position, seeming dead almost if it hadn’t been for the heat radiating from her body, and the occasional hitch in her breath that she normally did when she dreamed. Whatever was in the sedative was some potent stuff, because she did not wake up for what seemed like the longest time, whether he got out of the bed or not.

Jupiter knew what it was to be kept and controlled, the years of experiencing Abyss’s imprisonment was enough to make him understand what Xavia might be going through, besides she was a pretty little woman that was warm in his arms, why would he not try to comfort the gorgeous creature he held?

He hadn’t realized that it would help in ways beyond cooling the bit of fever she was running but he left her for long enough to get a cool bowl of water and a wash cloth to put on her forehead…he didn’t know that watering the plant woman could be extremely effective.

Who ever wanted her knocked out, wanted her knocked out for a long time. He summoned a medic after awhile to reassure himself that she was ok. Again they told him that rest was key. He took another short trip to the lobby to swipe one of the potted trees. He placed it in the room and was satisfied that it was a good space for her, enough to keep her there, he wasn’t sure, but this place easily beat a random copse of trees or even a rundown abandon house. Eventually the piano was delivered and he replaced the keyboard with the sleek looking instrument. After everything was in place again he scooped her back up and picked up humming the sweet song, he didn’t know the words to.

She drifted in and out, catching snatches of movement here and there, like when he brought the plant into the room. He kept vigil on her through the whole thing, she could remember thinking to herself. Despite the wet rag on her forehead, the fever started to get worse, and she spiked around Midnight of the next day.

Xavia was delirious, tossing and turning on the bed, her skin dry and hot except where the cloth was. At one point she began to cry out and talk in her sleep, “No… No more…”
Her cracked lips moved slowly with each word, and her brow knit. “No more needles… Want to go home… Please…” Her accent was thicker than before with her sleep, a little harder to understand. “Want to go home, please… Don’t leave me here! No! Nooo!”

It was only a few hours before it was over, thankfully, and he would know that when a film of sweat covered her, making her already luminous skin shine with an ethereal sort of luster. If it hadn’t been for the water, she would have been much worse, much longer. She opened her eyes for real, this time, feeling somewhat weak. Her voice was raspy as she spoke, “Jupiter?”

She looked around for him tiredly, shakily propping herself up with the heals of her hands. She was stunned to find herself in an unfamiliar place, and her eyes widened with apprehension. She did not remember any dreams or how long she was out. To her, it was only a few minutes or an hour at the most, but in reality, it was likely she was out for a few days.

~~“No… No more…”“No more needles… Want to go home… Please…” “Want to go home, please… Don’t leave me here! No! Nooo!”

“Its ok, sweetie, I gotcha, you’re right here safe and sound.” He started humming the tune again not knowing what else to tell her, he didn’t know where ‘home’ was.

Jupiter roused from the light sleep that he allowed himself. He changed the wash cloth again, the infirmary staff he decided was useless. He took the chap stick from his pocket and applied a light coat to her lips again. He kept her close still, He hadn’t even thought about touching a bottle of his favorite poison in a few days?….it was a record, he hadn’t been that sober since….ever.Heck he hadn’t been sober for twenty four hours since he got out of the void.

~~“Jupiter?”

She looked around for him tiredly, shakily propping herself up with the heals of her hands. She was stunned to find herself in an unfamiliar place, and her eyes widened with apprehension. She did not remember any dreams or how long she was out. To her, it was only a few minutes or an hour at the most, but in reality, it was likely she was out for a few days.


“Xavia!” his lips exclaimed before planting a big Kiss on her forehead. “You’re alright!” His arms drew her into him he finally shifted her out of his arms and being held to his chest as a mother would a small child after day three. But she wasn’t ever out of arms reach, for longer than it took him to get to a restroom or a plant that he added to the room. He had been dozing again and, he hadn’t eaten well since the night he went bar hopping. He was famished, but if she couldn’t eat, well than neither would he.

Her eyes closed when he kissed her forehead as if she was his, and she sighed softly, “You stayed with me…” It wasn’t a question, she didn’t need to ask him that. His breath didn’t smell like alcohol, either. How long had she been out? When she opened her eyes again, she looked at him and gave a weak smile. Her hand lifted up and she touched his cheek, looking into his eyes for a moment, before dropping said appendage and relaxing against him.

“You took care of me,” she went on to say, then canted her head. “Why? I’ve been nothing but trouble for you, Jupiter. Why would you take care of me?”

She rolled some to face him, the question alight in her gaze, brows puckered gently in confusion. For some reason, she had to touch him again, and brought her hand up once more, tracing his lips with her thumb in wonder. There was no mistaking the look in her eyes, something tender, something soft… Was she half in love with this man already? If she was, she wasn’t about to say so.

Her lips pulled downward at the corners as she concentrated on his face, her mind still a little foggy. She opened her mouth to speak again, and her belly growled loudly in protest. Woman, stop thinking about kissing him and get some food, she thought in her head, and her heart argued back with, “But his mouth looks good enough to eat.” After all, he spent the nights with her, taking care of her, making sure she made it, why couldn’t she kiss him? In the end, she did, leaning in and brushing her lips across his softly.

~~ “You stayed with me…”

“of course.” He answered anyway.

~~“You took care of me,”

He nodded a bit more modest this time…modesty? He didn’t know he could do that…perhaps he did need to drink a bit today.

~~“Why? I’ve been nothing but trouble for you, Jupiter. Why would you take care of me?”

“Intially because you said I couldn’t. at first I wanted nothing more that to lash out at you. The maple syrup did that… so at first I was going to take care of you because it seemed like that would be worse to you than killing you.” He smiled weakly. “ after that in the house you were so warm as we slept, it was good. Your song touched my….soul.” that was the first time he even considered having a soul of his own. “ then those bastards…they threatened you and I stopped thinking…then I told you you’d be safe with me and I failed you... He got away…I couldn’t leave you alone again, or he wouldn’t be a problem for you ever again.”

“I….I…because I want you. Uh to. Because I want to.”

She leaned into to kiss him and he met her half way. His lips met hers, two opposing tides crashing into one another, heat, lighting, fireworks.” He pulled the rest of her to him and showed her how happy he was that she had survived.

She broke the kiss before it got too heated up, being that she was kind of weak still, and also that she didn’t want him to get any ideas about the fade to black kind of scene. After all, she was saving herself for when she knew without a doubt that she was in love with the man.

Xavia sat up and slowly shifted so her feet touched the ground, and she took a few deep breaths, wanting to say how she wanted him as well, but bit her tongue before doing so. Her thigh throbbed from the knot that was still there from the needle, she must have had some kind of mild allergic reaction to the drugs to have had a fever and have a knot the size of a golf ball. But the need to get up was greater than feeling crappy and sick.

“I need to wash up, Jupiter, and… well, you know.” She refrained from saying how she might need help washing up because she knew if she told him that, he would relish in doing so, and it might lead to other activities listed in the first paragraph of this passage that she was trying to avoid for now.

Add to that, she really did not need his help to piddle. (XD)

She kissed him and broke away quickly almost a necessarily, as if another kiss or two would have been too much to handle, he filed that away. It seemed she liked kissing him enough that she had to resist him, it was reasonable, he liked that she worked differently then the girls Venus bedded and sent on their way.

~~“I need to wash up, Jupiter, and… well, you know.”

“ah., of course Fluer. I’ll get us something to eat, what would you prefer? We have a lot of stuff here, you bathroom is stocked. And it was , there were all sorts of earthy scented things in that room, he had way too much time to catch someone in the hall and bribe them to go find things that she would like. He found that he liked sending females to shop for a female they thought of things he certainly hadn’t…what the heck was a loofa anyway?

Jupiter stretched giving her one more peck on her cheek. She’d also find a few out fits one size to big for her, he checked the brown dresses size, how was he supposed to know it was off, The girls he sent after a few out fits followed the theme of earth tones and flowers well when shopping. He liked having sanctuary house members, they were good for errands. He would have attempted to do all the shopping him self except that he had to watch over her…had to wanted to, enjoyed holding her for days.

He was being so cute about her keeping the distance between them as far as their budding relation… ship… goes… Wait, relationship? How did that happen? She forced herself to think unsexy thoughts, worse than Barney Gumble in a polka dot bikini. George Bush, Dick Cheney, uh, uh, Wookie! That did the trick.

She realized that she had been staring at his mouth the whole time he was speaking to her, and she hardly paid attention to what he had said. Food? Oh, yeah, food. “Uh…” Good question. All this time she had been surviving on eating rotten leaves, which were, for some reason, tasty to her, that she had forgotten how real food tasted. Mind you, she wasn’t remotely anywhere near being carnivorous, and opted for something vegetarian. “Veggie burger sounds good to me,” in fact, she almost drooled for this.

Xavia stumbled to her feet and headed for the door she figured was the bathroom, pausing and smiling some over her shoulder toward him. “Oh, and… thank you again for everything…” With that, she opened the door and slipped in.

She rushed over to the bath tub and drew some hot, but not too hot, water. She didn’t think twice about pouring a capful of bath gel into the running water. She was soon slipping out of the sweaty clothes and into the water with a nice, audible purr, for she had not seen the likes of a hot bath in months! If he had not gone for food yet, he would definitely be able to hear it through the door, and the sounds of pleasure that followed. Poor Jupiter.

He wondered idly if the heat between them would show up on a thermometer. She stared at his lips and he glanced at her everything.


~~“Uh…” “Veggie burger sounds good to me,”

“are you vegetarian? “ he asked curiously. He could do vegetarian, unlike his zeal for drink he couldn’t make him self care a bout food, most people treated food like an all important hobbie, debating over what would go into their stomachs. He didn’t care so long as it filled it. If nothing else finding a place that had veggie burgers would be interesting.

~~“Oh, and… thank you again for everything…”

“My pleasure.” It was too, or was he calling her that? Getting her room set up with anything that he could think of that she would need kept him from going insane and also allowed him to stop sending for a nurse every twenty minutes.

She disappeared into the bathroom, his ears were so eager to hear what his eyes couldn’t see that they heard the soft cloth hit the ground. The water turned on and then she made sounds about the bath that would get him through the rest of the week. He let out a throat sound of desire. He needed a shot. He needed to join her in the bath tub. Burgers. Veggie burgers.

He pulled out a little map detailing how to find her way around the sanctuary and set in the place where music would go on a piano.

This would keep him busy for a while, he made way to the front desk to ask Lisa where he should go, she was better than google. And if she didn’t know well, she had google at her desk.

He rounded the corner to the front desk and Lisa offered him an amused smile, she thought it was sweet that the big mean off was pulling out the stops for his new friend.

A few minutes had him going to a place called fig leaf and a vegetarian’s wonderland; he got a big bag of veggie burgers and fries. He also grabbed a menu that offered all sorts of real food in vegetable form. The restaurant took him about ten minutes to get to and then fifteen minutes in there ten minutes back and he imagined that he might walk in to something steamy.

"Yes, I do not eat meat.” She had lost the taste for any meat products after becoming a plant girl. (This was said before she went into the restroom.)

By the time Jupiter got back with the food, she had just lifted herself from the tub, and seeing as he was gone, had the bathroom door open while she was wiping a soft towel over her skin to dry off. If he walked in at that moment, he would definitely catch an eyeful of the girl, and would see she seemed to match the mythical beings from fairytales, the tree dweller known as a Dryad. The moment was short lived when she wrapped the towel around her and stepped up to the vanity to brush her hair with the brush he must have bought for her.

She started singing, more to herself, “Take me now, baby here as I am… Hold me close, try and understand… Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe… Love is a banquet on which we feed.” It was quite comical, if he stood in the doorway, he would see her pretend the hairbrush was a microphone. It seemed she did more than just sweet sounding ballads. Indeed, she could make some money off of her pipes if she wanted to. She started to toss her head some as she continued to sing the 10,000 Maniacs version of Because the Night. “Come on now, try and understand the way I feel under your command! Take my hand as the sun descends. They can’t hurt ya now, can’t hurt ya now, can’t hurt ya na-ha-ha-ha-ha-ah-ow! Because the night belongs to lovers – “ and by that point she would probably turn around and see him standing in the doorway watching her act like a dork.

"Yes, I do not eat meat.”

He shrugged lightly. “Works for me, I thought for a bit you might not eat plants.” It made sense to him, it seemed like cannibalism in a way somehow. He could work with cannibalism too though.

He walked in and gaped momentarily just as the towel was closing a flash of everything and then it was clung to by a towel, she somehow didn’t notice him he stepped back quickly…four days of behaving himself and not letting his hands wander where his eyes couldn’t resist. And then he peeped at her and wanted to rush in making where his eyes trespassed, his bodies’ to take and then he heard her voice mocking his needs and wants… she resisted so far

“Take me now, baby here as I am… Hold me close, try and understand… Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe… Love is a banquet on which we feed.”. “Come on now, try and understand the way I feel under your command! Take my hand as the sun descends. They can’t hurt ya now, can’t hurt ya now, can’t hurt ya na-ha-ha-ha-ha-ah-ow! Because the night belongs to lovers – “

He shut the door a little bit louder this time, not that he snuck in the first time or anything, no he was certainly not as quiet as he could be…that was coincidence. He set the big bag of plants made to appear as meat and cheese and everything that wasn’t plant life on the dresser. He turned the corner and observered her wrapped in the towel brush to her mouth. Words flowing from her in sexy tones. Why couldn’t he toss her on the bed again and remove the towel like wrapping on a present? He breathed out a heavy sigh again. Was he actually in pain? He was pretty sure.

“ again you sing, spectacularly, feel free to put the take me now part on repeat.” He swallowed hard and leaned on the door way. Making no move toward her in hopes that if he didn’t move he wouldn’t touch he in a way she wouldn’t welcome, or more likely welcome and simultaneously reject.

And as if on cue his voice cut through her like a knife through cheese, and she swung around, dropping the brush and moving to the bathroom door to quickly shut it. “You were supposed to knock!” She squealed, laughing. Of course, her face was lobster red at getting caught singing into a hairbrush. She quickly pulled on one of the loose dresses that was purchased for her, and sighed softly as she felt the brand new material touching her skin. Floral print, just the way she liked.

She came out not too long after, and while he was distracted by the bags of food, she couldn’t help but slip her arms around him from behind and lift up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, “Patience is a virtue, Jupiter.” She sniffed the air then, and reached around him for the bag with the veggie burgers in it, before jumping and landing on her rump in the bed, bouncing a few times with a cheerful chuckle and attacking the bag of food with gusto.

Ohmnomnom.

She was ravenous by that point that she didn’t stop and savor the burger she took. The thing was gone before she knew it, and she happily slurped at a drink (assuming he brought drinks) through a straw. Today was a good day.